Recognizing Yahweh’s hand in their lives, both in the vision which sent them into the desert and in the safe return of the brothers from the hand of harm, “they”—meaning here a united Lehi and Sariah, although certainly the rest of the family also participated—offered thanks to God. This verse, where Sariah steps back into unity with her prophet-husband, concludes the Book of Mormon’s best-developed description of a woman. In Sariah’s role as a mother, we see her hopes, fears, overriding love, and eventually firm faith.
History: While peace offerings would be given in thanks, such as the return from a journey or, as we have seen, their arrival at their resting point in the Valley of Lemuel, this particular burnt offering may have had a different purpose. S. Kent Brown suggests:
According to Leviticus 1 a burnt offering was made for atonement—and more specifically, purging—after one had committed sin. “If any man of you bring… a burnt sacrifice… it shall be accepted for him to make atonement” (1:24). In the case of burnt offerings, the animals for sacrifice might come from a herd or flock, or they might be birds (1:3, 10, 14). If the animals, only males in this instance, came from a herd or flock, then, as with the peace offerings, Lehi’s family would have either brought them from Jerusalem—unlikely in light of Nephi’s description of what they took from home (“provisions”)—or purchased them locally. If Lehi offered birds, he likely bought them from someone in the area of the base camp who raised domesticated fowl.
The more important issue, of course, has to do with sin, real or suspected, and how one transferred it away. For sacrifices offered at the temple in Jerusalem, the priests were under daily obligation to sacrifice burnt offerings on the chance that someone in ancient Israel had sinned. Naturally, the priests could not realistically check in every corner of the land for sinning, but they could safely assume that every day someone had committed some sin, thus justifying the burnt offerings. Hence, the offerings were intended to cover all possible bases, whether the sin was known or not.
In the case of Lehi’s burnt offerings, sin stood close by. In a couple of instances, of course, one might question whether family members had really committed sin. But one must remember that Lehi was proceeding as if he were a priest offering sacrifices at the temple just in case.
Because two of the journeys included incidents of murmuring or outright rebellion, situations that could be construed as sin, an offering to purge such sin would be appropriate.